02/23/07 No Korean Beef Trade & ESA Reform

No Korea Beef Trade & Reforming the ESA. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Efforts to reform the Endangered Species Act have been revived. A bill sponsored by Idaho Senator Larry Craig and Wyoming Senator Craig Thomas seeks to strengthen species recovery while providing for local community input. Reforms written in the bill would require two public hearings in the impacted states and require advocacy groups to provide information on the species that has been tested in the field, peer reviewed and published by a scientific source. The bill also provides landowners, states and federal agencies with the necessary tools to properly list and manage species under the Endangered Species Act. South Korea has no intention of budging on the issue of beef. Officials in Seoul said that Korea won't talk about importing boneless beef as part of scheduled free trade talks next month. But that poses a problem. Cattle-state lawmakers in the U.S. are insisting on a resolution to what - in effect - is an ongoing ban on U.S. beef. Without a resolution - they say there won't be a trade agreement with South Korea. Several members of Congress have written or met with Korean and U.S. officials on the issue - and during a recent trade hearing - Kansas GOP Senator Pat Roberts made it very clear to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab that Senators will not stand for a deal if Korea hasn't moved on beef. ROBERTS: U.S. Beef continues to be blocked from the Korean market and we have problems with Japan as well. The FTA negotiations appear to be moving forward. What happens if the negotiators come to an agreement on FTA and the beef issue remains unresolved because you're not going to get support? Now here's today's Washington Grange Report. (GRANGE) That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.